D-day for Bomber Command Memorial

Veterans of Bomber Command will find out tonight whether a memorial to 55,573
of their comrades who died in the Second World War can be built in central
London.

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An artists' impression of the memorial in its proposed location on the edge of Green Park

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The sculptor Philip Jackson working on a scale model of a sculpture of a bomber crew which will form the centrepiece of the memorialPhoto: PAUL GROVER

By Gordon Rayner, Chief Reporter

7:00AM BST 13 May 2010

On what the former airmen have described as “D-Day” for the £3.5 million monument, Westminster Council’s planning committee will decide whether to approve its proposed location on the edge of Green Park.

With the help of Telegraph readers, the Bomber Command Association has raised £1.8 million towards the final cost of the memorial, which has the full support of David Cameron and the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.

Bomber Command, which was made up entirely of volunteers with an average age of 22, suffered the highest casualty rate of any unit in the war, yet their courage has never been honoured with a national memorial or campaign medal.

Squadron leader Tony Iveson, a wartime Lancaster pilot and the vice-president of the Bomber Command Association, said: “The contribution of Bomber Command towards final victory and the liberation of Europe has never been fully acknowledged, but we are now on the cusp of putting that right.

“It’s almost like a D-day for us. At last we can see the possibility of getting a memorial to the 55,000 men who sacrificed their lives, and it is in the hands of the planning committee to deliver it.”

Veterans will be joined at tonight’s meeting by the Bee Gees singer Robin Gibb, who has worked tirelessly to help raise funds through the Heritage Foundation, of which he is president.

Mr Cameron said it was “time the nation showed its gratitude” to Bomber Command, while Mr Clegg has written to the council to say the airmens’ sacrifice was “truly humbling” and describing a memorial in Green Park as “an opportunity for all of us to acknowledge our debts to them”.